


Shifted Sands Oneshots

by DaughterOfDungeonBat



Series: Shifted Sands [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Anakin Skywalker is Not a Jedi, Discussions of slavery, F/M, Force-Sensitive Shmi Skywalker, Gen, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Qui-Gon Jinn Lives, Tatooine (Star Wars), past enslavement
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24175174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughterOfDungeonBat/pseuds/DaughterOfDungeonBat
Summary: When Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi returned from Naboo, having slain a Sith and, in the case of the latter, more than earned his Knighthood, the Jedi Council were not swayed on the fate of the little boy who lingered on thoughts of his mother.So, no sooner than he had seen Obi-Wan through his trials and secured currency good in Hutt territories, Qui-Gon Jinn left the Jedi Order with little Ani Skywalker in tow.The will of the Force was that he train this boy, but it had not specified that said training happen in the Jedi temple.(AU- Qui-Gon tells Council to get fucked, frees Shmi, and trains Anakin in the Force in the back of their repair shop.)
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Shmi Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn & Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn/Shmi Skywalker
Series: Shifted Sands [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920016
Comments: 13
Kudos: 104





	1. Brown

**Author's Note:**

> Hi fellow members of the rowboat of a ship that is Shmi Skywalker and Qui-Gon Jinn! As of right now, I'm calling this AU 'Shifted Sands Verse,' but gosh if anyone has any better suggestions I'm all ears!  
> First few chapters will be short and might be weird! This is because I wrote/am writing parts of this 'verse for a fanfic 100 that I'm doing. Speaking of challenges, I am also taking part in Banned Together Bingo 2020 and may write some of my fills for this universe. If I do, I'll turn this into a series and post the fills as individual works under that, due to the specific rules of the collection.  
> These are not in any order!  
> I also cannot format to save my life. Once quarantine is over, maybe my girlfriend will help me with the HTML lol.

Almost everything on Tatooine was some shade of brown, Qui-Gon had found. The walls were beige, the coarse fabrics they wore to shield themselves from the blazing suns were tan, and the unforgiving sands were every shade between. The bright blue of Anakin's eyes seemed to be one of the only exceptions, but the least likely to be sullied. It was all according to what Qui-Gon had expected, even if Obi-Wan thought the planet was uninhabitable.  
  
He hadn't been expecting Shmi. Shmi with flecks of gold in her dark eyes and a connection to the living Force she knew not of. Shmi who made sure her son had the only truly warm blanket on bitter desert nights and drew a former Jedi master into her bed to share body heat.  
  
Some weeks later, when Qui-Gon bought a soft quilt the same color of Anakin's eyes (using his abilities to get a fair price and a fair price only, he assured), perhaps he should have expected that they would continue to share.  
  
Qui-Gon was sure that neither he nor Shmi knew what they were doing, what they were to one another, but he was also sure that neither of them needed to just yet.  
  
The deserts were vast, the sands harsh, and there was softness to be found in one another in the long Tatooine nights. And that was enough.


	2. Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shmi calls Qui-Gon her husband here- they are not 'married' married, but they say they are because that's easier than 'well I'm Anakin's mom and this tall man is teaching him how to use magic; nothing to see here,' and on Tatooine... that's about as married as anyone gets.

Shmi watched Qui-Gon (her husband, she almost laughed at the thought) curiously, leaning against the back wall of their humble home.  
Qui-Gon sat in a pool of moonlight, deep in meditation. The grey streaks in his hair glowed silver, fluttering at his shoulders like flowing water in the night breeze.  
  
He could have been just another desert dweller, were it not for how the air seemed to hum around him. Most people couldn't feel the living Force flow around him, Qui-Gon had said, but Shmi was not blind.  
  
And she would have to have been blind to miss the way the sand shifted beneath Qui-Gon, forming flowing rings that circled around him.  
  
He was beautiful, Shmi found herself almost lamenting. She wasn't the only one who had noticed, if the sly smiles from the woman who ran the nearest moisture farm were anything to go by.  
  
Pretending to be truly married to this beautiful, kind, wise man was certainly the worst part of the charade by far, but it was all for her Ani, which turned any frustration to dust.  
  
Shmi followed the curling pattern of sand with her eyes until she reached the still form of the former Jedi, nearly jumping from her skin when she found those blue eyes staring at her, through her. They were lit by the starlight, but so gentle, Qui-Gon's forehead creasing in concern.  
  
"I have kept you awake, Ms. Skywalker. My apologies." He said, pulling himself to his feet effortlessly. Shmi smiled, ducking her head to hide it. 'Thinking loudly,' Qui-Gon had called it once- of course he knew why she had sought him out.  
  
"I have spent the night out in the sands." Shmi said, nodding her head at the circles that were already being blown away. "I wished to spare you the discomfort."  
Qui-Gon smiled that soft, kind smile again, and Shmi was grateful that he let her small lie go unchallenged.  
  
The nights on Tatooine were fearsome, and having a warm body at one's back made it much easier to finally sleep.


	3. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I still really wanted Anakin to kind of have a brother in Owen Lars, but no step-brothering is happening in this universe, obviously.  
> This is based half off of my binging the Mandalorian, and my own interpretation of Obi-Wan's line about 'pathetic life forms.'  
> I also fudged Beru's age by a few years so I don't have to research how to write slightly older kids for the sake of a one-shot.  
> Yeah, it's self indulgent. Sue me!

It was bad luck, that Qui-Gon and Anakin had gone out on the speeder before dinner.  
  
Had either of the two competent Force users been in the house, maybe someone would have noticed when someone approached, and left someone else on the doorstep.  
  
The little girl had full-blown heat stroke by the time Qui-Gon scooped her into his arms like a broken doll and rushed her into the house, hovering at her side and carefully bringing her temperature down bit by bit.  
  
Shmi did her best to quash the guilt that rolled like bile at the back of her throat.  
  
They finally tried to get some food into the little girl after Anakin had gone to bed, and Shmi found herself pulling the mug of broth away from the child lest she make herself ill.  
  
"What is your name, little one?" Qui-Gon asked softly, a good distraction.  
  
"Beru." The girl said, not looking up at Qui-Gon but not flinching away. The pair was sat on the cool floor, and Shmi gave them some space, having long since accepted that children and animals were drawn to Qui-Gon.  
  
"And how old are you, Beru?" He asked.  
  
Beru held up three fingers.  
  
"And a half."  
  
"A big girl then." Shmi said, crouching down to Beru's level. "Big enough to help me make your bed for tonight! How does that sound?"  
  
~  
  
"We cannot keep her, Qui-Gon Jinn." Shmi said once they had finally gone to their own bed. She didn't need to be any good with the Force to feel what her husband was thinking. The strong arm around her tensed, then relaxed.  
  
"Then what will we do with her? You heard what she said- about her mother putting her on a speeder for hours and leaving her here?" Neither said anything for a few long seconds, the only sound the wind howling over the dunes.  
  
"The Force may have led her to us, as it led me to you and Anakin."  
  
Shmi wasn't sure whether to roll her eyes or sigh fondly. She certainly believed in fate, but unlike her husband, Shmi placed more stock in coincidence.  
  
"Take her with you the next time you go for water," Shmi said softly, settling into her pillow in a way that always signaled that the conversation was over at least until morning. "Clieg and Gara have a son about her age, maybe they could use an extra set of hands, or know someone who does."  
  
Silence again.  
  
"And if there isn't anyone?"  
  
"We will talk, if it comes to that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler Alert! The Lars family couldn't take her in


	4. Lightening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (no, I didn't spell it wrong, that's the actual prompt!)  
> My favorite description of falling in love comes from a tumblr post that I haven't seen in years. It went something like- 'falling in love with you wasn't some all-consuming crash, it was like standing in line at the CVS to buy cold medicine and a candy bar and realizing 'huh, it's warmer than I thought.''  
> Qui-Gon is in that CVS line, but he's buying organic protein bars.

It felt as though the Force was lifting some knot of indecision from Qui-Gon's shoulders, and he could feel the lightening come over him.  
  
Shmi was on the floor of the back room of the shop, her worktable abandoned as she dug to her wrists in the chest cavity of a pit droid in quite the sorry state. She chewed the inside of her cheek, her hair frizzed out of its tight bun, and oil streaked her forehead.  
  
And like a single warmer breeze on a pleasant day, Qui-Gon realized that he loved her.  
  
"Shmi Skywalker," he said, pushing aside the circuit board he was trying to clean. She looked up at him, skilled hands still tweaking at the droid. "Would you allow me to kiss you?"  
  
Shmi blinked once, and then any trace of being taken aback was replaced with a small smile. She placed a finger near her lips, tilting her head towards the door.  
  
"-perfectly old enough to fix your speeder! Swear it!" Anakin's voice filtering through the thin door sent a wave of unexpected embarrassment through Qui-Gon.  
  
"When my son is not just around the corner," Shmi said quietly, going back to her work as if nothing had occurred, "then, I think that I would."  
  
Qui-Gon told Anakin later that his flush was merely from the heat of the Tatooine mid-day.


End file.
